


A Brush of Feather

by nevereverever



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 1 (Critical Role), Character Death, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, It's not sad though, Love, Post-Canon, Reunions, Team as Family, Vox Machina Feels, this barely has a plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23355508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevereverever/pseuds/nevereverever
Summary: Time did not move for him as it did for others, that much he knew for sure. That time passed in the world below, moving as it always had. He stood, a still observer as the world changed. He did not change with it. Instead, he became.All is returned, for those with enough patience and enough love to find it.
Relationships: Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Vax'ildan & Vex'ahlia (Critical Role), Vax'ildan & Vox Machina, Vox Machina as a Family
Comments: 6
Kudos: 77





	A Brush of Feather

**Author's Note:**

> hello critical role fandom. i know that you've all moved on or whatever but i found out about this three weeks ago and now i finished and im sad and i have a (non covid related) fever. i wrote this in 2 hours and my head hurts. please enjoy this bullshit

Champion of the Raven Queen was not a job one sought. It was given, a heavy mantle meant to rest on strong shoulders. It was given, a blessing on one who did not pray for it. It was given, a gift on breath on a mirror and time immemorial.

Time did not move for him as it did for others, that much he knew for sure. That time passed in the world below, moving as it always had. He stood, a still observer as the world changed. He did not change with it. Instead, he became.

He saw his family grow in an instant and died in an eternity, but he did not weep. For above all else he knew that they would be safe when they arrived. And perhaps deep inside him, in the part of him that even his Queen could not touch, he hoped that they would find their ways peacefully and without haste.

“ _Your broken one_ ,” She said.

First was Percival. He caught a glimpse of them, Percy, his sister, their children. They were together if now missing a piece. It passed in a moment. Their pain was his pain and though he could not reach out to them, he felt with them. His sister was right when she said he had taken a part of her with him.

“ _Your indomitable one_ ,” She said 

Grog. He died with an ale in his hand and was stubborn enough to bring it with him. He would have laughed if he could breathe.

“ _Your mirror image,_ ” She said.

Dulled as he was to the outside world, he nearly fell apart when he saw the life leave his sister. When they were younger, they’d talked about dying, about how they would go together. Always together. He wanted more than anything to be by her side, but he would not be of any comfort to her. He wished to see her in the astral plane, but there were forces greater than him that forbid it.

“ _Your smiling one,_ ” She said.

Scanlan Shorthalt left his world behind with a flourish and a smile. In the glimpse he saw, his friend was alone, just himself and his blasted instrument. Scanlan had never wanted to die in front of people. Perhaps he had been saving his final notes for himself.

“ _Your divine one,_ ” She said.

Pike followed him, her arms spread like a bird. She was gone to see her goddess once more. Pike never needed the redemption Sarenrae offered because it was as if her bones were made from mercy, her skin sewn together with the healing light. It was dark in the place where he was. Under her cloak it was always dark, but the light of his friend helped him feel as if the sun were rising for an instant.

“ _Yours,_ ” She said.

Keyleth of the Air Ashari, Voice of the Tempest. Kiki, some far away part of him corrected. She died quietly, not in fire and flame, but still so bright. She drifted away like smoke and ash and he had half a mind to reach out and grab her. 

Time did not pass for him as it did for others. He did not know how long he stood with his Matron, how long he carried the weight of her armor. It was almost as if time had stayed still and he had fought through it. Each step took uncountable years and fractions of a second.

He could not describe it was a day or a night, or even a moment when his Goddess came for him.

“ _My champion_ ,” She said, her inky blackness filling the space around him. He closed his eyes, and existed at one with her.

“My Queen,” he responded.

“ _Your time has come again,_ ” She intoned, “ _You have served me well, hero._ ” He felt a brush of feather against his chest, and for the first time since the fall of Vecna, he breathed. It wasn’t air, but he felt himself expand and contract.

“What do you mean?” He asked, placing a curious hand on his sternum.

“ _A new champion has been chosen. I have kept you here under my wing, now I must set you free._ ” Feather brushed over his shoulders and the bone fell away, the tension leaving him. He would have fallen, but She held him up.

“I’m afraid I do not understand.” An all-encompassing hum filled the chamber. Feather brushed against his throat, and smoke freed itself from inside him, drifting out of his open mouth. He felt... he felt. He wouldn’t have been able to describe it if he thought about it for a thousand lifetimes, but She smiled.

“ _Go, little bird. There is someone waiting for you._ ” He opened his open eyes, and there was light.

When he looked up, She was gone, and in her place was Vex. Vex, who was smiling, small and proud, looking at him like she’d hung the moon and was expecting the appropriate praise. He ran towards her, his footfalls lighter than they’d ever felt, and pulled her into the tightest hug. She hugged back, their bodies falling together like two pieces of the same broken thing.

“I love you,” she said the moment they touched, “I found you.”

“I- I love you too.”

"Your voice sounds normal again. For so long I've waited for this. What do we have, a minute before you have to get back to your spooky matron?" Vex sniffled into his shoulder and he smiled. He barely remembered how.

"I don’t know why, but I believe something has changed. My debt is paid." She pulled away from him and held him at arm's length. She looked him up and down with a critical eye.

"You don't mean," she whispered, brushing her thumb over his cheekbone. He pulled her back into his embrace, comforted by the feeling of her in his arms. Something in him went solid that had for so long been drifting away.

"I'm afraid you're stuck with me now, Stubby." She brought a hand up to cradle the back of his head. 

"We're all stuck together," she responded, the smile in her voice clear as air. He pulled away but grabbed for one of her hands. She took it.

"Our family?" She nodded. 

They blinked, and they were in an ivory garden. There was no color, it was white as far as the eye could see, save for 5 figures in clean clothes and shining armor, all beaming.

There were forces in the universe too great and powerful to be trifled with. They are treated as constants, something so large it could not be stopped, not with the will or strength of the strongest warriors.

There was not a single force in the universe that could have stopped Vox Machina from colliding into a hug. Grog had half of them with their feet off the ground but they didn't care because everything was over. They were together.

“Grog,” Pike said, squished between Keyleth and Scanlan. “Grog, could you let us down please?” 

“Oh, alright,” he let them out of his crushing embrace. Scanlan and Pike both dropped a few feet to the ground. “It’s just, we’re all here now and we haven’t seen him in so long.”

“I know, friend. It’s just that some people might need a second alone.” 

“Me and Vax?” Scanlan joked, clutching a string of nonexistent pears, “but darling!”

“Now, Scanlan, I know you’re not good at this but I need you to read the room.” She gave Vax a pointed look and tilted her head towards Keyleth, who was wiping tears from her cheeks. He didn’t need to be told twice. He gathered her in his arms and she felt so real and solid. They were on the same plane, of the same time. He pressed his forehead against hers. She was warm

“I missed you. I didn’t know how to miss anything but I knew I missed you.”

“I waited,” she said simply, cradling his face in her hands. He laughed, deep in his chest.

“Wait’s over, my love.” He tilted forward and caught her lips in a kiss. It was all passion and longing and ‘I missed you I'm sorry never leave I love you I love you I love you.’ The wind rushed over the shining garden.

“I lived for 977 years after you died,” she said, running her hand through Vax’s hair, “And so did that fucking bird.” There was a smile in her voice, but the look of frustration on her face would have sent an army of orcs fleeing. He tried to stifle a snigger, and when he failed that, he buried his head in her hair and laughed into the crook of her neck. 

“I’m not kidding. You owe me a full millennium of raven food.” She let him go and brushed a tear off her face. Percy took a step towards them.

“This,” he said “this, I will accept.”

**Author's Note:**

> tell me if you liked it or if you didn't. either way, i love you critical role fandom.


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